Improvement in soap-boiling apparatus



C. MORFIT.

Making Soap.

Patented July 29, 1856.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CAMPBELL lWIORFIT, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

' IMPROVEMENT IN SOAP-BOILING APPARATUS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 15,432, dated July 29, 1856.

To all whom; it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CAMPBELL MORFIT, of Baltimore city, in the State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful apparatus for mixing, stirring, and heating the contents of vessels by dry steam at one and the same operation; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same,

, reference being had to the annexed drawings,

making a part of this specification, in which Figures 1 and 2 are sections, and Fig. 3 atop view.

V V is the containing-vessel, which may be a round-bottom pan, as represented in the drawings, or a wooden tub, the form and material being dependent upon the nature of the substance under process and the kind of treatment to which it is to be subjected, my combined heater and twirl being equally applicable to open and closed pans or tubs. Firmly fixed to the center of the bottom of the containing-vessel is a slightly-conical metallic socket m, communicating with a wastepipe 41, and adjusted to and turning in this socket is the upright metallic shaft 0, carrying the tubular arms or coils R R, M" 1" r, and

s s s 8, arranged in horizontal and vertical series alternately, and which, together with the shaft 0, constitute the heating-twirl, as shown in Fig. 2. There may be two, four, or more of these series or branches of tubes, according to the capacity of the containing-vessel, and each and every one of the same is tightly joined with the shaft at w, the center of which is hollow from that point upward to the stufiing-box D, as a passage-way for the steam from the generator to the twirl. The lower end of the shaft is also hollow in the center :0 to a height of several inches above the top of the socket, for the purpose of communication between the exit ends '5 of the series or branches of arms of the twirl, with the wastepipe '11, the connectingjoints being made steam-tight.

The gearing by which the twirl is made to revolve is shown at A and B, and it derives its motive power from an ordinary steam boiler or generator. The same boiler supplies the steam also for heating the twirl as it revolves, and the arrangement for this purpose consists in a piece of metal D, adjusted to the shaft and sunk in a wooden support E.

This piece of metal D has on each side stufiing-boxes 0 o, and in its center is a groove so cut as to allow free circulation of the steam,

which is admitted through a pipe F, leading into it and fixed bya screw-joint. This pipe communicates with the steam boiler or generator, and the current of steam passing through it into the twirl is regulated by the cock G. As before explained, the shaft 0 is hollow in the center above the point 20 where the mouths of the twirl-tubes enter it, and communication between this channel in the shaft and the steam is made by a hole penetrating through the metal into the groove. Following the course of this passage-Way, the steam continues from the feed-pipe down into the tubular arms of the twirl, which twirl being made to revolve simultaneously by power applied to the gearing A B, the mixing, stirring, and heating of the contents of the pan or containing-vessel go on part passu and uninterruptedly, the condensed steam being discharged through the waste-pipe as and n, into which the exit ends of the twirl branches or tubular arms enter at i 1'.

My arrangement is admirably adapted to the manufacture of soap, the rendering of tallow, and similar operations, the concurrent revolutions of the twirl and the extended heating-action of its tubular branches effecting at one and the same operation a thorough diffusion of heat and a completeness of manipulation throughout every part of the contents of the containing-vessel not attainable by the use of a stationary worm or a doublebottom pan or any other known method for such purpose, even at much greater expense of time, labor, and money than is required by my process, as substantially described in the foregoing specification.

Having thus set forth my improved apparatus, what I claim is The combination of the hollow shaft and tubular arms as a mixing, stirring, and heating twirl for dry steam either in open or closed Vessels, as above described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name before two subscribing witnesses.

CAMPBELL MORFIT. Witnesses:

E. A. DALRYMPLE, J 01m S. HOLLINGSHEAD; 

